Power Line Communication Modem Research Articles

Server Based Load Analysis of Smart Meter System

The electricity demand is adding with the growth of population and with the use of different appliances in the homes. So, there's a need for consumers to track their diurnal operation and understand the consumption patterns to save and control these coffers. Smart cadence along with Advanced Metering structure( AMI) is a realistic and effective result for this. before procedure which put to profitable use of one- way dispatches to gather cadence data, were mentioned to as Automated Meter Reading( AMR) Systems. This design aims at analyzing the performance of the proposed smart cadence systems, effective transmission and how serviceability explore new developments for the benefit of consumers as well as themselves by ever covering energy consumption. This is achieved by using PLC modems for remote monitoring and control of energy measures. By this way we can bring down mortal sweats demanded to outline cadence readings which are till now recorded by visiting every home collectively. As a result, the consumption patterns at the serviceability are studies and cargo analysis is made so that this can help in maintaining other systems associated with energy operation. To study and dissect the cargo consumption patterns. By this way an estimate on the energy consumption can be made and therefore have a control on its operation. Key Words: Smart Meter; Smart Grid; Advanced Metering Infrastructure(AMI); Information Rights Management(IRM); Power line communication(PLC); Arduino UNO;Energy consumption.

Three-User Cooperative Dual-Stage Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access for Power Line Communications

We present a cooperative, dual-stage (DS) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme for power line communication (PLC) systems, where three PLC modems are served in two time slots. The network consists of a source (S) modem, two relay (R) modems and a destination (D) modem. In each of the two time slots, S communicates with one R using NOMA, and the other R communicates with D using the decode-and-forward technique. We consider both scenarios where a direct link may or may not exist between S and D. We derive expressions for the approximate average sum rate and overall outage probability of the network. Next, we formulate an optimization problem to find the optimal power allocation coefficients at S, such that the sum rate is maximized. We establish the accuracy of our approximations using Monte Carlo simulations. Furthermore, we show that our scheme outperforms the two-user single-stage and the DS schemes, and the three-user NOMA scheme proposed in the earlier literature, in terms of sum rate and outage probability.

Simple and Low-Cost PLC Modem for IoT Applications

We present in this paper a simple and low-cost Power Line Communication (PLC) modem for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The proposed modem implements a simple on-off-keying (OOK) modulation/demodulation with only discrete electronic components, not requiring complex ICs, such as processing units. It uses the ground and neutral wires as a channel communication, eliminating the need for complex isolation circuitry. To improve its robustness to noise, the developed PLC modem includes an automatic receiver gain adjustment and a transmitter sweep carrier frequency algorithm. Laboratory tests show that the developed PLC modem is capable of transmitting data at 9,600 bps with no errors if the noise spectral density in the power line is below 111 nVRMS2/Hz in the bandwidth of 150 kHz to 500 kHz. The system was also evaluated in a residential power network, where it presented a bit error rate below 1.21%. Due to its low cost, the developed PLC modem is suitable for low data rate IoT applications such as energy consumption monitoring, appliance monitoring and control, environmental monitoring (temperature, humidity, luminosity), security monitoring (presence sensors), etc.

Fühler‐im‐Netz: A smart grid and power line communication data set

AbstractThe increasing complexity of low‐voltage networks poses a growing challenge for the reliable and fail‐safe operation of electricity grids. The reasons for this include an increasingly decentralised energy generation (photovoltaic systems, wind power etc.) and the emergence of new types of consumers (e‐mobility, domestic electricity storage etc.). At the same time, the low‐voltage grid is largely unmonitored and local power failures are sometimes hard to detect. To overcome this, power line communication (PLC) has emerged as a potential solution for reliable monitoring of the low‐voltage grid. In addition to establishing a communication infrastructure, PLC also offers the possibility of evaluating the cables themselves, as well as the connection quality between individual cable distributors based on their signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR). The roll‐out of a large‐scale PLC infrastructure therefore not only ensures communication, but also introduces a tool for monitoring the entire network. To evaluate the potential of this data, we installed 38 PLC modems in three different areas of a German city with a population of about 150,000 as part of the Fühler‐im‐Netz (FiN) project. Over a period of 22 months, an SNR spectrum of each connection between adjacent PLC modems was generated every quarter of an hour. The availability of this real‐world PLC data opens up new possibilities to react to the increasingly complex challenges in future smart grids. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the data generation and describes how the data was collected during normal operation of the electricity grid. In addition, we present common anomalies, effects, and trends that could be observed in the PLC data at daily, weekly, or seasonal levels. Finally, we discuss potential use cases and the remote inspection of a cable section is highlighted as an example.

A Line Impedance Calculator Based on a G3 PLC Modem Platform

Power line communication (PLC) is one of the most today used technologies for both automatic meter reading and many other smart grid applications. In this framework, a characterization of the electrical network in the PLC frequency range is needed in terms of impedance measurement and received signal level. This can allow choosing the most suitable and less noisy frequency ranges for PLC transmission. Usually, these characterization measurements are performed with dedicated instrumentation and in the absence of mains voltage. This article wants to propose an alternative solution, which allows these kinds of measurements to be performed using electronic boards currently used as on-field applications, such as smart meters. To this aim, an innovative measurement tool is proposed, which does not need a specific characterization signal to be injected because it uses the preamble of a generic PLC transmission. Moreover, the impedance calculation is performed using an FFT analysis, which does not require high computational capabilities. These features allowed the proposed tool to be implemented using a G3-PLC transceiver, embedded in many commercial smart meters, and low-cost additional hardware. This article shows how the proposed system correctly measures the PLC impedance on CENELEC A, B, and FCC frequency ranges.

Communication Distance Estimation for Power Line Communication Using Various Differently Constituted Power Cables

The use of PLC (power line communication) is growing as the adoption of IoT technology becomes more widespread. However, the maximum communication distance between PLC modems cannot yet be clearly defined since the communication characteristics of the power lines used for PLC are not formally specified. In this paper, the propagation characteristics in the high‐speed PLC communication band of 2–30 MHz were investigated when equipment is not connected to the power line except both ends. The line constants for five typical types of cables used as single‐phase and two‐wire power lines were measured. Our results showed that different cables have markedly different transmission characteristics. The attenuation constant varied up to fourfold depending on the cable insulator material. We also derived a method of estimating the communication distance for different cables for application of the HD‐PLC system, which is the most commonly used type of high‐speed PLC. The measurement result by using VCT cable was almost agreed with the estimated value. By comparing the estimated distance with the experimental results, we show that the transmission distance can be estimated with sufficient accuracy for practical use. © 2021 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Electromagnetic Interference of Power Converter with Random Modulation on the Power Line Communication System

Random Pulse Width Modulation (RPWM) allows controlling the switching signal of power converters in order to reduce the harmonic peaks by spreading the noise spectrum. Currently, many manufacturers of power converters are deploying this modulation scheme in order to comply with Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) test requirements. However, when the converters coexist with Power Line Communication (PLC) systems, such as in Smart Grid (SG) applications, resorting to RPWM needs further investigations since it potentially affects the communication channel by increasing the bit error rate. This possible detrimental effect is investigated in this work, by considering a PLC system for automatic meter reading (AMR) implemented in a SG application. To this end, the model of a complete PLC system is implemented in SIMULINK, and Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation is used to model the PLC modems in the communication channel. Results show that, even if the deployment of RPWM techniques may lead to an appreciable reduction/spreading of the peaks in the noise spectrum, it may also lead to an increase of the bit error rate on the PLC system.

Performance Evaluation of Power-Line Communication Systems for LIN-Bus Based Data Transmission

Powerline communication (PLC) is a versatile method that uses existing infrastructure such as power cables for data transmission. This makes PLC an alternative and cost-effective technology for the transmission of sensor and actuator data by making dual use of the power line and avoiding the need for other communication solutions; such as wireless radio frequency communication. A PLC modem using DSSS (direct sequence spread spectrum) for reliable LIN-bus based data transmission has been developed for automotive applications. Due to the almost complete system implementation in a low power microcontroller; the component cost could be radically reduced which is a necessary requirement for automotive applications. For performance evaluation the DSSS modem was compared to two commercial PLC systems. The DSSS and one of the commercial PLC systems were designed as a direct conversion receiver; the other commercial module uses a superheterodyne architecture. The performance of the systems was tested under the influence of narrowband interference and additive Gaussian noise added to the transmission channel. It was found that the performance of the DSSS modem against singleton interference is better than that of commercial PLC transceivers by at least the processing gain. The performance of the DSSS modem was at least 6 dB better than the other modules tested under the influence of the additive white Gaussian noise on the transmission channel at data rates of 19.2 kB/s.

Smart Grid Communication Using Open Smart Grid Protocol

The smart grid transfers electricity from power utilities to the customers’ end using full-duplex digital communication technology and helps us to control the home appliances and factory machines to save electricity while reducing costs and increasing reliability and transparency. So, in order to ensure the grid reliability, we need to monitor and control the smart me-ters by means of data transfer and command signals on the single power line without using any other communication media to improve the cost-effectiveness of the proposed study. This paper proposes a hardware implementation of a Power Line Communication (PLC) protocol named Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP). This protocol is based on the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model. The proposed system comprises monitoring and controlling server (Lap-top/Desktop), power line communication modem, two PIC18f4520 microcontrollers, one energy meter and power line as transmission media. This protocol is first implemented on a server in C-sharp by using the OSI model approach, and then on micro-controllers in order to control the energy meter. The power line communication modem is used to send and receive the data between the server and the energy meter. Finally, results are presented to validate the hardware implementation of the protocol.

Possibilities of Broadband Power Line Communications for Smart Home and Smart Building Applications.

Broadband Power Line communication is considered as one of possible communication technologies for the buildings communication infrastructure in the concept of Smart Building. The possible applications where BPL (Broadband over Power Lines) solution can be used for communication in the concept of Smart Building are Power Quality (PQ) measurement, Electric Vehicle or Micro Grids and Distribution Generation (DG). This article should help to determine clear performance possibilities of BPL for an implementation in Smart Building especially due to a large amount of overhead caused by cybersecurity and the protocol overhead. The possibilities of BPL were measured with five different BPL solutions. The results show a sufficient throughput on the application layer for Smart Building application, because, in the literature, various throughput limits are introduced. According to related work, there are missing measurements on the application layer for laboratory conditions as well as compared with real field measurements. In this article, we also exploit our novel idea of a broadband PLC (Power Line Communication) modem integrated into an electrical outlet.

Physical Layer Security of In-Home PLC Systems: Analysis Based on a Measurement Campaign

This article investigates the physical layer security (PLS) of a broadband in-home power line communication (PLC) system when a malicious and passive PLC device tries to eavesdrop upon private information sent by a PLC transmitter to a legitimate PLC receiver. In this setting, the ergodic achievable secrecy rate, secrecy outage probability, effective secrecy throughput, and wiretap code rates are numerically evaluated with the use of a data set obtained from a measurement campaign carried out in several Brazilian houses. This data set comprises PLC channel estimates and measured additive noises considering four distinct sets of transmitter, legitimate receiver, and eavesdropper positions. Numerical results, covering three distinct frequency bands (1.7–30 MHz, 1.7–50 MHz, and 1.7–86 MHz), quantitatively show, in practice, the level of vulnerability of broadband in-home PLC systems in terms of PLS and offer some directions for an appropriate design of PLC modems to improve PLS.

A Review of Impedance Matching Techniques in Power Line Communications

Impedance mismatch that degrades signal power transfer and affects communication reliability is a major obstacle for power line communications (PLC). Impedance matching techniques can be designed to effectively compensate for the impedance mismatch between PLC modems and power line networks at a specific frequency or for a given frequency band. In this paper, we discuss the tradeoffs that need to be made when designing an effective impedance matching network. We also make a comprehensive review of previous state-of-the-art PLC impedance matching techniques and provide a useful classification of each technique. Finally, we discuss important issues (concerns) and provide suggestions for research directions deserving more attention. This review provides a useful guideline for researchers and manufacturers to quickly understand impedance matching principles and facilitate the design of an effective impedance matching coupler for PLC applications.

Advanced Patient Health Monitoring System using Power Line Communication Technology

Open source automation system is rapidly developing towards more reliable communication systems. In recent years for its convenient installation and low cost the power line increasingly become a popular transmission medium in creating industrial/ resident work. PLC is a technology uses power lines as physical media for data transmission. PLC offers a no new wires solution because the infrastructure has already been established. PLC modems are used for transmitting data at a rapid speed through a power line in a house, an office, a building, and a factory, etc. Due to this additional telemetry features, cost of the devices are more and all hospital or clinic cannot afford to buy them. Hence in our work, temperature, blood pressure and heart beat monitoring equipment based on power line communication is developed. This is cost effective equipment which uses existing power cables as communication medium. Power Line Modem (PLM) is used for transmitting and receiving the signals over power line cable. Signalsare modulated and demodulated using direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) technology. When compared with other communication technologies like local area network (LAN), ZigBee, Bluetooth, the establishment cost for healthcare monitor using Power Line Communication (PLC) was low.

Effects of Power Line Communication on Radio Communication Equipment

Radio communication is a wireless transfer of information via power cable by Power Line Communication (PLC) and its dissemination through radio communication equipment.. However, this information causes signal interference, noise and distortion with the power line communication. This work analyzed the effect of PLC on radio communication equipment by interconnecting two high-speed PLC modems communicating with a data rate of up to 250 Mbit/s using telephone distribution wiring for radio spectrum to reduce the interference radiation that emanates from a power line. The measurements were made using a reference antenna at a distance of 3 m from the power line. The peak field-strength values were measured and recorded in the 30-350 MHz frequency range in horizontal and vertical polarization. The result shows that interference radiation occurring at frequencies up to 305 MHz, includes the FM band as well as the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) band. It is expected that as the data rate of high speed modems increases, a corresponding increase in the interference radiation occurs at frequencies above 300 MHz. To this regard, administrations should take all practicable and necessary steps to ensure that the operation of power and telecommunication distribution networks do not cause harmful interference to a radio communication service. Keywords: PLC, Radio Communication, Interference, Noise, Distortion, Communication Equipment, Field Strength, DAB DOI : 10.7176/JNSR/9-16-04 Publication date : August 31 st 2019

BITFCM-OFDM scheme for power-line communication systems

Power-line communications (PLC) is viewed as a good potential solution for smart grid communications because of the established infrastructure around the world. However, power-line was not initially aimed to be used for continuous data communications. Hence, challenging problems may occur when the power-line channel is used as a communication channel. One of the major issues is the (bursty) impulsive noise in the power-line channel. This paper analyzes the system performance of the bit-interleaved time-frequency coded modulation (BITFCM) scheme with an optimal low complexity maximum likelihood (ML) decoding scheme in the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)-based broadband PLC (BB-PLC) modems. The numerical results illustrate that this proposed scheme improves the system performance of the PLC modems under the bursty impulsive noise environment. Furthermore, the performance of the BITFCM-OFDM scheme can achieve up to 3 dB improvement at bit error rate (BER) of 10-4 in comparison with the bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM)-OFDM and shows significant improvement compared with the coded OFDM (COFDM). Finally, a blanking nonlinear preprocessor is used at the receiver and further improvement of the BER performance is evaluated.

Characterization of IP-Based Communication for Smart Grid Using Software-Defined Networking

The smart grid (SG) approach is based on a strong interaction between the network communication infrastructure and the power grid. Usually the management of the infrastructure is done by the distribution system operators (DSOs) that are worried about the increasing managing complexity due to the presence of increasing number of distributed energy resources and electrical vehicles. The use of software-defined networking (SDN) may simplify the network configuration and management for DSO, as highlighted from previous research works. The objective of this paper is to introduce and characterize an internet protocol (IP)-based communication architecture with specialized SDN bridges operating also over narrowband power line communication (PLC) to reach the last mile applications (e.g., smart meters and inverters). The feasibility of this approach depends on the communication performance of the supervisory level used to dynamically configure the SDN bridges. The characterization of this level is done using the following performance indicators: the round trip time (RTT), the packet loss (PL) ratio, and the actual IP throughput. The experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed architecture, since the limitations are given only by the physical implementation of the PLC modem. In detail, results of the case study show that the minimum RTT is on the order of 30 ms, the PL ratio is always less than 1.7% and the maximum throughput is of 95 Mbit/s, fully compatible with the requirements of the applications.

Accurate Low Access Impedance Measurements With Separated Load Impedance Measurements on the Power-Line Network

The precise knowledge of the access impedance and load impedances on the power-line communication (PLC) medium enables the optimum design of smart grid applications. The impedance of the PLC channel is strongly affected by the unmatched loads and considered as time- and frequency-dependent. This problem is the main reason for reducing the power amplifier output level of PLC modems, the transmitted signals, and the data rate of the PLC channel. This paper presents a description of an accurate access impedance measurement system in the frequency range 30–500 kHz with calibration processes and procedure to measure loads impedances on the power grid. This system provides a cancellation of the main frequency component and enables the analysis of the cyclostationary behavior of the access impedance of the power line. Off-line and online impedance measurements on different power outlets are presented. Very low and time-variant access impedances are found. This impedance behavior on the power line is related to the power supply unit and the electromagnetic interference filter design. The presented impedance measurements are evaluated and can be used to classify loads behavior.

Vector OFDM Transmission Over Non-Gaussian Power Line Communication Channels

Most of the recent power line communication (PLC) systems and standards, both narrow-band and broadband, are based on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). This multiplexing scheme however suffers from the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) which can considerably impact the energy efficiency, size and cost of PLC modems as well as cause electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) issues. This paper investigates the performance of vector OFDM (VOFDM), which has inherently better PAPR properties, over non-Gaussian broadband PLC channels equipped with two nonlinear preprocessors at the receiver. In addition, the low PAPR property of the VOFDM system is exploited to further enhance the efficiency of the nonlinear preprocessors. The achievable gains are studied in terms of the complementary cumulative distribution function of the PAPR, probability of noise detection error and the signal-to-noise ratio at the output of the nonlinear preprocessors. For comparison's sake, the performance of conventional OFDM systems is also presented throughout the paper. Results reveal that the proposed system is able to provide up to 2 dB saving in the transmit power relative to the conventional OFDM under same system conditions, which eventually also translates into a system that is more resilient to EMC limits, reduced cost and size of PLC modems. It is also shown that the achievable gains become more significant as the vector block (VB) size of the VOFDM system is increased.

Partial discharge detection using PLC receivers in MV cables: A theoretical framework

Partial discharge (PD) activity is a key indicator of the cable insulation health in medium-voltage networks. Many of these cables are used as transmission media, because power line communication (PLC) modems are installed at their ends.This paper proposes two techniques that allow broadband PLC receivers to detect PDs at the same time that the PLC signal is being demodulated. The proposed techniques are based on how PDs alter both, null, and zero-bit loaded carriers, commonly used in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing modems. Using the proposed techniques, a simple firmware modification is sufficient to add this new functionality to the already installed modems.This paper is mainly concerned with theoretical aspects of the proposed techniques, and no experimental validation has been done. Nevertheless, simulation results show that the proposed techniques can be used to detect different types of PDs. Four cases studies are analyzed: short- and long-distance PDs, and low- and high-energy PDs. Finally, the impact of the inter-carrier interference on the detection capability is studied, and some recommendations are made to mitigate its effects.

Energy-Per-Bit Performance Analysis of Relay-Assisted Power Line Communication Systems

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the energy efficiency performance for different relaying schemes over the non-Gaussian power line communication (PLC) channel. Specifically, amplify-and-forward (AF), decode-and-forward (DF), selective DF (SDF) and incremental DF (IDF) relaying systems are investigated. For a more realistic scenario, the power consumption profile of the PLC modems is assumed to consist of both dynamic and static power. For each system, we derive accurate analytical expressions for the outage probability and the minimum energy-per-bit performance. For the sake of comparison and completeness as well as to quantify the achievable gains, we also analyze the performance of a single-hop PLC system. Monte Carlo simulations are provided throughout this paper to validate the theoretical analysis. Results reveal that AF relaying over the non-Gaussian PLC channel does not always enhance the performance and that the IDF PLC system offers the best performance compared to all other schemes considered. It is also shown that increasing the channel variance, which is related to the PLC network branching, and impulsive noise probability can considerably deteriorate the system performance. Furthermore, when the end-to-end distance is relatively small, it is found that the single-hop PLC approach can perform better than AF relaying.